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My gpa is 3.26. 1 year of avg work experience (I did tutoring for a few months, then for the rest of the year worked as a fundraising consultant. Lot's of responsibility, client interaction, project based work. But it's a very niche industry, and it's no F500/ibank/consulting/etc.). Mandarin conversational fluency. Basic French.

I think it might be more helpful if I put on the bid lists for all three days.

No ties. Our OCI info wasn't too clear as to whether the 20 interview slots were for New York or for all offices total. I'm actually a little confused on this one. Also, it had no data for the new york office.

Anonymous User wrote:No ties. Our OCI info wasn't too clear as to whether the 20 interview slots were for New York or for all offices total. I'm actually a little confused on this one. Also, it had no data for the new york office.

Hmm, well the only thing I know about the NY office is that it's pretty small. I have no idea what kind of grades are needed for it. But if it's anything like the TX offices, I'd say it might be a waste of a bid.

I don't have time to look through all of these firms to see what their profiles are, so I'll provide some general advice based on my experience last year.

(1) Err on the side of bidding on firms with (a) big summer classes, (b) many interview slots. It's a lot easier to take a chance on someone with below-average grades if that person is one of fifty than one of five. That doesn't mean you should bid, say, DPW over Bryan Cave (no offense to Bryan Cave employees; it's a great firm), but it's more of a factor than I think most people realize.

(2) Do you have ties to any legal markets other than NYC? Use them, and interview with offices there. You don't have to lie and say you only want to return and have no interest in NYC/DC/whatever, but "my family members all live there and I'm definitely considering moving back after graduation" may just get you a jump.

(3) Indeed, bidding on Allen & Overy is a waste of a bid. You don't have the profile they look for, and they interview so few people you may not even get a screener despite bidding them #1. I wasted a #2 bid that way last year, as did many of my friends.

(4) Where are you working this summer? Leverage any connections people at your summer gig have with firms. (And, naturally, blow your superiors away with your hard work and outstanding work product.)

(5) Why do you feel that these firms should hire you? Make sure your application provides a narrative and that your persona matches it.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I have ties to Baltimore/DC area. I would bid on DC offices, but a lot of these firms seem to have much easier cutoffs for their NYC offices. I haven't seen any Baltimore offices to bid on - will just have to mass-mail them. While we're on this topic, was wondering if I should be bidding on Duane Morris in Philly or Duane Morris NYC. Not familiar with how much philly offices emphasize ties, or if their gpa cutoffs are higher or lower than NYC's.

Should I not bid on Allen & Overy at all? Or should I place them somewhere in the middle? I only bid them high because on our symplicity network, their callback GPA low is still at or below mine. And on that note, how trustworthy is symplicity's callback trend GPA listings?

Maybe I should have pointed out that I'm a rising 3L at Cornell, so my advice was specific in that sense, but general in that I can't offer an informed opinion on the details of your lists.

As to your questions, I would not bid for A&O at all. I assume they still have 10 slots or so? Last year more than 10 ppl bid them #1 and several people bid them #2, meaning that many people wasted their #1 or #2 bid. If you had a background that fit their profile (int'l work experience, fluent in other languages, etc.) then maybe bidding them #1 would make sense. But given your profile, even if you got a bid your chances of a CB--let alone an offer--are small. Thus my advice would be not not bid them at all. The low GPA recs do not translate into everyone above that threshold getting an offer. It just means that the few ppl who did get offers from them in the past (and last year I think there were none, but I may be wrong) did so based on other factors (like the ones I mentioned above) rather than grades. Don't stare youself blind at past GPA reqs. Just because one person last year got a V5 offer with mediocre grades doesn't mean you will--maybe that person was a Rhodes scholar, had a PhD, has a parent on the board of Goldman, whatever.

You know your qualifications best, and maybe you're just the world's most charismatic person who'll charm every interviewer--I can't really know those factors--but have some common sense and think realistically.

I have no knowledge of the Baltimore or Philly markets at all, so I won't offer an opinion, but I do know DC is hard to crack.

Edited for clarity.

Anonymous User wrote:OP here.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I have ties to Baltimore/DC area. I would bid on DC offices, but a lot of these firms seem to have much easier cutoffs for their NYC offices. I haven't seen any Baltimore offices to bid on - will just have to mass-mail them. While we're on this topic, was wondering if I should be bidding on Duane Morris in Philly or Duane Morris NYC. Not familiar with how much philly offices emphasize ties, or if their gpa cutoffs are higher or lower than NYC's.

Should I not bid on Allen & Overy at all? Or should I place them somewhere in the middle? I only bid them high because on our symplicity network, their callback GPA low is still at or below mine. And on that note, how trustworthy is symplicity's callback trend GPA listings?